The Edinburgh Skating Club usually convened at Lochend or Duddingston. It enjoyed immense prestige as the oldest established club in Britain, its membership dominated by the landed gentry and Edinburgh's legal profession. The Club was committed to figure skating, as can be seen from the elegant movement of several of the more serious skaters depicted here. 

Charles Lees RSA, 1800-1880

Born in Cupar, Fife, Lees worked as a drawing master in Edinburgh before taking up portraiture, apparently receiving tuition from Henry Raeburn. He also executed a number of historical paintings. In 1834 he spent a few months in Italy, visiting Rome and Venice. Lees was keen on open-air pursuits, and it is his later outdoor sporting scenes, combining landscape ad figure painting and often full of character and action, for which he is noted.